


Basketball

by powerandpathos



Category: 19天 - Old先 | 19 Days - Old Xian
Genre: Basketball, Bets, Kissing, M/M, Swearing, dares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-13
Updated: 2016-11-13
Packaged: 2018-08-30 19:10:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8545672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/powerandpathos/pseuds/powerandpathos
Summary: A short one-shot based on this ask: "Any thoughts on how He Tian and our precious MoMo would play basketball together? :3"





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted: http://thefearofthetruth.tumblr.com/post/152176184659/basketball-19-days

‘It’s not a fair match. You’re taller than me.’

‘Fuck off with your _not fairs_. Are you going to whine at me or are you playing?’

Hesitation, nervousness, anger: it’s all across his face. He knows it, can feel it flittering across his face like wind through a barley field.

‘Fine,’ Guan Shan grits out. He Tian’s smirk is unbearable. ‘But I start.’

‘By all means.’

It goes well at first: he takes He Tian by surprise. Manages to get a goal past him. He can see the surprise that lights his face, the curl of a smile on his lips that is quietly, unexpectedly pleased.

‘You’re good,’ He Tian says, when it happens the second time. And the third.

Guan Shan runs a hand through his hair. The autumn air is cool around them, a late white sun bright behind thick cloud, but there’s sweat beading across his forehead. ‘You thought I was going to go easy on you?’

This gets a laugh out of He Tian: a warm thing that Guan Shan feels run through him, and makes him frown.

He Tian says, ‘Guess I should stop going easy on you, then, huh?’

‘What—’

And then He Tian is moving. He’s long-legged strides and broad shoulders. He’s looming, doesn’t stop covering Guan Shan when he has the ball; doesn’t stop getting into his space. It’s like everything between them: He Tian moving too fast for him but in a way that taunts, with a smirk curling at the edges of his mouth, eyes impossibly dark—impossibly bright, and giving nothing. Not an inch.

He gets them through one after another, and sometimes Guan Shan does too, and every time He Tian is caught by surprise, like he doesn’t think Guan Shan was that good—hasn’t seen him play before. Isn’t used to some of the things that Guan Shan does because they’re dirty tricks from his neighbourhood, not the polished moves that are, fundamentally, old school, made to seem darker only by virtue of He Tian using them.

It doesn’t surprise Guan Shan that He Tian sticks to the rules while seeming only to skirt around them; that everything He Tian does is right but is barbed by a deep wrongness.

At one point, he just has to stand still: He Tian is already past him, shoulder brushing his like an echo that he has been, and Guan Shan watches as He Tian’s shirt rides up as he makes the basket. As he moves fluid and not quite _real_.

And when He Tian turns his grin is boyish, caught up with everything, a moment of self-forgetting. He is open and waiting for Guan Shan to smile back. He is saying, ‘Look at me,’ and ‘I want to share this with you,’ at the same time.

Finally, a timer goes off on He Tian’s phone on the side of the court, and the moment is broken.

He Tian swipes the phone off the ground and presses a button. He runs a hand through his hair, clears his throat.

‘You win,’ Guan Shan says, and there’s something pitting at the bottom of his stomach.

‘Guess I do,’ He Tian says. He’s not surprised, Guan Shan knows, but there’s a deep satisfaction in that tone. Of knowing he’s won.

They look at each other, autumn breeze picking up, their skin already starting to chill from the sweat. Sun-red leaves skitter across the court.

He Tian is walking towards him then, and Guan Shan can’t help that he moves backwards, feels his eyes widen as he hits the wire mesh of the court fence against his back. His fingers lace through it unconsciously, holding on, watching as He Tian approaches, unstoppable as a hurricane, a dark blot on the sky, and Guan Shan is shaking.

‘Scared?’ He Tian says, close enough that Guan Shan can feel the heat off him, that he can lace his fingers through the mesh above Guan Shan’s head.

‘A deal’s a deal,’ says Guan Shan, swallowing.

‘A kiss is a kiss,’ says He Tian.

Guan Shan can only think how he had accepted it from the beginning; said yes when He Tian challenged him to the bet. Can only think about how he _knew_ what He Tian was going to ask for, how he _knew_ He Tian, probably, would win. He wonders what that says about him, but he doesn’t have time to wonder long, because soon his lips are meeting He Tian’s in a way that answers his own questions.

 _This is why_ , he thinks, as He Tian’s mouth moves against him, hot in a way that is burning, in a way that makes Guan Shan feel he cannot breathe. In a way that makes Guan Shan open for him; makes him press into him. His tongue is reaching for his, and he can only feel the way He Tian’s thumb is brushing against the wild pulse in his throat, smoothing over it like he’s calming him, and Guan Shan is getting lost in it; how his other hand has moved to rest on the slope of Guan Shan’s waist.

They break away, and He Tian breathes without breaking eye contact. Guan Shan can feel a flush creeping over him, helpless to stop it, and he can feel He Tian’s eyes moving across him. Looking at the pulse in his throat, at the mess of his red hair, at the lips shining and bruising from their kiss. The look is a hungry one, and He Tian’s been given a taste.

His cranes his neck again and—

‘Wait,’ says Guan Shan, hand on his chest. ‘One kiss. That was the deal.’

He Tian stares at him. ‘Seriously?’ he says. _That can’t be all I get,_ his voice says. _I can’t have this once._

‘I’m serious,’ Guan Shan tells him. ‘Unless you want to know what my side of the deal was.’

He Tian doesn’t move; he presses in, so slightly, so Guan Shan’s hand is even harder against his chest, feeling the muscle and the heat of the skin beneath his palm. He Tian’s eyes are watching him in a way that is too still, too intense, and Guan Shan can’t hide from that look when he’s this close.

‘Tell me,’ He Tian says. It’s almost a growl.

Guan Shan can’t feel the corners of his mouth tilt up. ‘My deal,’ he says, ‘was a kiss.’

He Tian does not wait for permission, and Guan Shan kisses him back, deep and slow, hand fisted in his hair, wrapping into him, because he already has it.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted: http://thefearofthetruth.tumblr.com/post/152176184659/basketball-19-days
> 
> Please leave kudos if you enjoyed!


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